Officer escapes injury in traffic stop accident

ALPINE (AP) — Authorities say a northern New Jersey police officer escaped injury when he was struck by a car and knocked over a guard rail during a traffic stop.

The Record reports the accident occurred around 9:20 a.m. Friday, shortly after Palisades Interstate Parkway Officer Christopher Finn had stopped a car on the highway in Alpine.

Finn was standing at the driver’s door when an approaching minivan hit the guard rail and rear-ended Finn’s patrol car, sending the cruiser into the car that had been stopped. That vehicle then hit Finn in the leg and knocked him over the guard rail.

Finn and the driver of the car he had stopped were shaken up but not hurt. Three people in the minivan were treated at a hospital for undisclosed injuries.